PC Assistance

City: Little RockCategory: Category I (1-25 Employees)Year: 2013

Since its genesis in 1994 as a software training company, PC Assistance gradually morphed into the IT consulting firm it is today.

"Over the course of 18 years, we have evolved through several levels, just as technology has changed," said Ted Clouser, executive vice president. "We got into the fixing model with people bringing in their computers around 1997. Then we got into more of the network environment when heavy networking started to really begin, and we formed what we are today somewhere around 2000 or 2001. We started working with Alltel at the time during their DSL rollout. It was a really big opportunity to grow our business, and in 2005 we started doing managed service platforms."

Clouser said the company's niche was managed service for smaller businesses. PC Assistance typically works with companies having fewer than 100 employees that are better suited to outsource IT services than employ their own.

"We feel like we can do it more cost-effectively and do it better by having a team of engineers," Clouser said. "It's better than having one person trying to manage the network. We do complete 24/7 monitoring and management. Every one of our clients knows we're watching at all times."

Clouser said the company's philosophy was "based on the Golden Rule. Our concept is we want to treat every single person exactly as we would want to be treated."

PC Assistance employs a team of about 20. Clouser said the company had about 300 clients, with a little more than 100 of those being fully managed by PC Assistance.

Clouser said he was proud that the company had been able to maintain clients and staff for long periods.

"To me, that's huge," he said. "To say we've had key staff in place since the late '90s, that's a huge accomplishment. To me, if a client stays with us, or if staff stays, that's affirmation that the company is headed in the right direction."